Joanna Quinn
** THIS TITLE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE **
Cover Illustrator: Daniela Frongia
Cover Designer: Mark Gerber
Publisher: Emerald Lake Books
Publication Date: September 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-945847-44-8
Book Description:
What’s worse than being invisible? Being noticed by the school bully.
Greta Grace likes her life. She isn’t the most popular girl in school—some days she even feels invisible—but she gets good grades and stays out of trouble.
She has a best friend in Samantha and a grandmotherly neighbor who is never too busy for a chat. Her mom can be a bit overprotective, but Greta Grace doesn’t blame her. Being a single parent probably isn’t the easiest job in the world.
When her longtime crush finally starts noticing her, Greta Grace thinks her life might even be perfect.
But when a merciless bully takes aim at Greta Grace, her carefree existence suddenly ends.
Who ever knew that school could be so hard?
Readers’ Favorite, 5-Star Review
Greta Grace is a work of fiction in the children’s drama genre. It is aimed at younger readers and was penned by Joanna Quinn. The book follows the titular Greta Grace as she tries to navigate her day-to-day life at school. Whilst her social life suffers from her flying under the radar, she manages to be a model student the rest of the time. Her situation starts to change when the target of her affections starts paying attention to her, but things take a turn for the worst when the school bully also begins to notice her existence.
It’s a difficult time in a young person’s life to be on the cusp of teenage years, the playfulness of early childhood being slowly left behind as the infamous puberty years loom ahead. Things change, feelings are amplified, and every dark situation feels like it has the potential to be world-ending. It’s amongst this hotbed of emotional changes that Joanna Quinn has set this story, and as a former teacher, it’s a world she has unique expertise in. Greta and her peers are all wonderfully fleshed-out characters with all the accuracy and complexity of people their age. The subject matter of bullying is a very serious one for a book aimed at children, with those who have experienced it often regarding it as one of the worst chapters of their lives. Greta Grace manages to skilfully walk a very delicate line between realistic depiction and a sensitive discussion of the subject, making the book an extremely important resource for parents and educators wanting to open a dialogue with young people about the subject.
Reviewed by Lexie Fox
